February 21, 2016

~This past week my ex-husband was swept off of a ladder while trimming a tree. He broke 7 ribs, and fractured vertebrae, and underwent 4 hours of surgery whereby the surgeon informed the family that he nearly severed his spinal column. Luckily he is not paralyzed as is a good friend of one of the dentists I work with, while doing the same. Please do not trim the tall trees yourself, and hire a professional. I wonder how many people are seriously injured while trying to save a few bucks.

~Today my sister called to let me know that Mom is in the hospital again. This time the diagnosis is both dementia and congestive heart failure. She will apparently be in the hospital about a week, but the breathing treatments are already helping, and her oxygen levels have risen to near normal levels. I mentioned to her that low oxygen levels will seriously impair cognitive function, and although I am willing to concede that she may have dementia, her health issue isn't really helping. Again, I feel guilty that I am too far away to help.

~I am not unfamiliar with trying to save money, as Romeo is still on unemployment. He's been on 5 (or is it 6?) interviews that unfortunately didn't go anywhere. There is still a possibility of one position in Santa Fe, but it has been almost 2 weeks, and he hasn't heard anything. Again I proposed that he should check into teaching, and this time I managed to convince him that he truly has much to offer. As he has 2 masters degrees (and MBA and a Masters in Microbiology), all he really lacks at this point is a teaching certificate, and we are hoping that the promise of money to pay for education (through the unemployment office) will work for us. If he can at least get it started, we can probably (?) manage from there. The main issue with teaching is the time of year ~ we must expect that he may not have a full time position until the fall. I have no idea how often he might be called to substitute teach.

~At the same time, my studies are making me painfully aware of how priviledged a life we lead regardless of Romeo's unemployment status. I mentioned to my sister today that although we are getting by, I am still pulling $$ out of the stash I set aside when he was laid off. I estimate that it will last a few more months, and then things will really get interesting. But, I've wandered from my previously mention privilege where we know that we have plenty to eat in our house, and a wonderful house to live in (altho it's not yet paid for), and that we have two cars that are paid for. This is in stark contrast to families that wonder what they will be eating tomorrow. The topic in class tomorrow is food disparities, or food insecurities, which has replaced "hunger" in the educational literature. Romeo and I talked for a bit about the public and social network shaming that goes on when someone who isn't on food assistance sees someone who is, buy a steak, or a bottle of wine, or some other "luxury" item that they can't afford themselves. I think we all agree that there are abuses of the system, but we shouldn't be assuming that the lady with the steak and bottle of wine in her basket is doing so.....perhaps she is planning to prepare an anniversary dinner, because they can't afford to go to a nice restaurant and don't wish to go to Denny's. And who could blame her for that? I don't know the answer, but I think we all need to let the "powers that be" work on routing out the abusers and let people be. I would be murderously furious if I were on the receiving end of that kind of dialogue.

February 20, 2016

I'm always on the lookout for the weird & wonderful, and these little snails fit the bill. If you click on the name, a link will take you to the story, with a few seconds of video showing how these minuscule snails "fly" through the water.

Until this past year, I've never played an online game, which I believe is when I started playing this one. It's fun, it's entertaining...if nothing else just reading comments from other players is very interesting. I am part of an "alliance" that works as a team to win tournament prizes and so on. You can be very vocal or not at all. It's a fun way to pass the time while waiting for something (Dr's office, or being forced to sit with a bunch of friends to watch sports that you aren't really interested in). The members in our alliance are from all over the world...Australia, New Jersey, Ireland, Germany. Makes it interesting especially when one of the new members has a rather tenuous grasp of English. Gotta give them credit for trying!

"Firefall at Yosemite" (Bing)

Although I've never seen this phenomenon, for a couple of weeks in February the sun reflects off of the water creating this incredible photo. Beautiful!

February 14, 2016

Romeo and I have been married for a good long time. We have (& are) weathering the ups and downs that everyone experiences, and we are still together....still say "I love you" every morning & night.

Early on, he would buy me flowers.....sometimes candy too......and although I appreciated the thought behind it, I finally told him to stop. I recall a beautiful arrangement that cost him over $70 (I saw it on the bank statement), and decided right then and there that this craziness has got to stop. Especially when said flowers were droopy and sad looking 4 days later, only to be tossed out after 5.

He still buys me flowers ~ cute little bouquets from the grocery store that run about $5 or so. It's still the thought that counts, and it shows that he is thinking of me when he buys them!

February 12, 2016

Have you every had a friend that you try to hang on to, but you end up being the one that does allllll the work? You know....if you didn't call months would go by & you don't hear from them? I suppose everyone has a friend or two like that, and are perfectly happy with the way things are.

However, I have decided to weed out a few people that just never make any effort to keep in touch.

This is something I've been thinking about since last Monday, because *Sheila* didn't call me back on Sunday. And our friendship is exactly how I describe it in the first paragraph. She is a truly nice and likeable person. However, if someone says "I'll call you on Sunday", and then doesn't, and it's not a surprise, then I think it's time to let go. And spend more time with the friends that actually call you back, and sometimes go to lunch with you. Because when she didn't call me, I began to wonder if there was something wrong with me, until I figured out it isn't me at all. And I'm tired of making excuses for her.

This one is similar to a post on Facebook I noticed lately, and it really resonated. I no longer wish to chase someone down who can't find 10 minutes to call. I'm done with that. Since then, I've been contacted by one person who wants to get together, and we've set up a day & time to have a drink, shoot the breeze. And today I ran into *Linda* and said, hey I've been thinking about you, and we should get together soon, and she agreed.

I suppose I should have figured all of this out long ago, but I am stubborn, and refuse to give up on people.....although now I realize it wasn't as good for me as I thought. Letting go is rather exhilirating.

February 6, 2016

Have you ever wondered what living in a town crawling not only with drug pushers, but also with the abusers that sometimes die from using, or are killed by the pushers? No? Well, I get it. I am about halfway through the book. I had to put it down and take a break. There's only so much heartbreak I can handle on a sunny ~ but cold ~ afternoon.

Last Monday we reviewed how historical trauma to a group (example: the Holocaust) can affect an entire group of people for generations. Fun times.

Although I was originally excited about this class, my enthusiasm has waned. Funny, but I was much more interested in evolutionary medicine ~ which explores the possible ways our current disease culture is influenced by our lack of exercise and unlimited amounts of unhealthy food available to us has increased out disease levels to alarming highs. Even a class like that one was more uplifting than my current class on "health in New Mexico". Only 13 more weeks to go. humph

=wherein the author of this blog attempts to be a little more lighthearted=

Of course he looks happy, he's half in the bag....but not bad for 107.